英国文学脉络(北大笔记).doc

English Literature the Middle Ages (medieval period) to 1485The Old English (to 1066)The Middle English (to 1485)From the collapse of the Roman empire to the Renaissance A period of enormous historical, social and linguistic change. In fact, art and literature flourished during the Middle Ages, rooted in the Christian culture that preserved , transmitted, and transformed classical tradition. The Old English Poetry The bulk of old English literature deals with religious subjects and is mostly drawn from Latin resources. A small amount of secular poetry, including epic poems like Beowulf. The subject matter of his verse is sometimes of great antiquity, concerning the legendary or historical figure who lived before the Anglo-Saxon conquest of England. (e.g. Pagan, Hellenic heroic world) Thus, the heroic world was remote from the Christian world of Anglo-Saxon England. Moreover, the heroic code is difficult to reconcile with christian doctrines such as forgive those that trespass against us. and all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword The poetry is predominantly harsh (e.g struggle in battles) Grave, decorous(serious and polite and elegant) 古英语时期，文学语言很高雅，庄重，远离现实，这不同于中世纪。文学主题，主要是与宗教题材有关，但也有少量关于世俗生活的。Not romantic!P3 (kinship) 思考：最初的国家是以血缘为联结的，看重宗族传承。 The Middle English Period A diversified picture ( language, subject matter, styles, tones)A lighter kind of humor is apt to flash everywhere. The legend of king Arthur 亚瑟王传奇很流行Romance, like epic, often involves a large amount of fighting against men and monsters; it made liberal use of the improbable, often the supernatural. Unlike epic, romance usually also deals with romantic love; indeed, the themes of love and war are often connected, the heros martial exploits have a direct influence on his love affair. 与史诗相比，“romance”会包含爱情，往往与英勇的行为交织。(aristocratic and popular) The ethos of many romances, involves the proving of a knights worthiness through noble character and deeds rather than through his high birth. And in this respect, romances reflect the aspiration of a lower order of the nobility to rise in the world. 骑士通过高贵的品格和言行来赢得爱情和地位，不是依赖出身。 The larger proportion of surviving literature in Middle is religious. Exempla (use stories to illustrate biblical texts)the 14th century, ChaucerThe increasingly wealthy and influential urban middle class. Respond to an age of crisis and transition(react to the challenge of the times)The 15th century, Malory Performances of mystery plays (based on the Bible), religious works. Mystical writings (tell of their direct personal experience with God (meditation)Arthurian romancesThe 16th Century The age of Tutor sovereignsHenry 7 Imposed a much stronger central authority and order on the nation. The exploration of the Western Hemisphere affected their place in the world profoundly. (great colonizer and merchant adventurers) 一开始，还有中世纪的文学印迹（在新世界中回忆理想化的过去；模仿Chaucer） Humanism: Sir Thomas More Emphasizing the dignity and potential of the individual and the worth of life in this world. 强调个人和现世English humanism was vitally concerned with Christianity as well as with classical learning. (意大利的人文主义相对世俗些，英国人文主义更宗教化）Emphasize education For More, the unity of Christendom (信仰基督教的国家）was an overriding value. Reformation (p398) To those who supported it, it was a return to pure Christianity-cleansing the church of all the corruption and idolatry that had accumulated over the centuries. To the roman catholic church, it was damnable heresy protestantism Only the Scriptures have authority in matters of religion; Only Gods grace and personal faith can effect a Christian s salvation. Only the enlightened private conscience can determine what an individual must believe and do. Puritanism Queen Elizabeth establish the English church in terms acceptable to the vast majority of her subjects. p399 That compromise satisfied neither the Roman Cathelics, who sought to return to Rome, nor the puritans, who pressed for more radical reform. But it accommodated most of the populace, who now looked neither to Rome nor to Geneva as the prime source of authority in religion, but to their own sovereign. Elizabeth 的折中策略不能让保守者和激进者满意，但是却缓和了大众，让国家稳定下来。Nationalism (the second half of the 16th century bear her name, the Elizabethan Age)Spenser-glorify ElizabethTravel literature The excitement and the darker side of nationalism and colonialism Sir Philip Sidney (some of his poems were passed around in manuscript) Art and Nature: Artificial : 404 referring to the proper use of human ingenuity to enhance nature, to enable it to outdo itself. Intricacy of design and elaborateness of pattern were especially valued. But a rigid form was to control all of this extravagance, and the fusion of such complexity with such order was often seen the concern with models, with conventions, with the literary tradition as the very vehicle for artistic expression. (to learn from them, emulate, transform, and surpass) Shakespeares Winters Tale yet nature is made better by no mean but nature makes that mean; so over that art which you say adds to nature, is an art that nature makes; .this is an art which does mend nature -change it rather; but the art itself is nature Sidneys The Defence of Poesy is the only work of literary criticism in 16th century England.Macrocosm-microcosm analogy, according to which the vast universe may be found, replicated in little, in the human body. The great chain of being, according to which all orders of being, from speck of dust to highest angel, are ranged hierarchically in their divine ordered stations. Poetic conventions, modes and genres Several literary modes:pastoral, heroic, lyric(ode hymn,sonnet), satiric, elegiac(elegy), tragic and comic. Pastoral kind: Present a simple and idealized world inhabited by shepherd and shepherdesses who are chiefly concerned to tend their flocks, fall in love, and engage in friendly poetry contests, Value: leisure and humble contentment, which is at the opposite pole from pride, ambition, and the pursuit of fame and frotune. Eg. The joys of the shepherd s life The disappointment in love Conceal serious, satiric comment on abuses in the great world under the guise of homely, local concerns. Sonnet:E.g. The ladys great beauty/ her power over him/ her cruelty to him/ his sleeplessness/ the fire of his love/ the ice of her chastity/ the pain of absence/ the renunciation of love/.(an unattainable lady)The tragic mode: e.g. Complaint(the ghost of someone who fell form high place bemoans his fate and warns others; the warning carries a moral lesson.Mythological-erotic mode: values and conventions of lush and elaborate descriptions of physical beauty , of delight in the pleasures of the senses, and of frank eroticism appealed to a courtly taste. Heroic mode: with its values of honor, battle courage, loyalty, leadership, endurance, and glorification of nation or people. The chief genre is epic. The spirit of inclusivism包容主义 Dramatic literature and the theatre. E.g. Plots based on intrigue(conspiracy)/division into acts and scenes/type charactersKinds: Romantic comedy: noble characters and a central love plotDomestic comedy/city comedy/humor comedy/ tragicomedy/ tragedy. Tragicomedy: in which evils and problems that seem destined to end tragically are brought to sudden,happy resolution (看一下shakespeares Measure for Measure, The Winters Tale) Tragedy: The tragic fall should be caused by some error or moral weakness in the protagonist; the plot should involve a fall from eminence to misery, marked by reversals or discoveries; the characters should be persons of high estate, better than we; the tragedy should evoke pity and fear in the viewers (+subplot+ comic relief) Subgenre: revenge tragedy (Hamlet)/ heroic tragedy/ villain tragedy /小结：这是一个复杂的时代，有乐观，还有焦虑；有秩序，也有反叛；社会的重要，个人意识的崛起。If optimism and exuberance are characteristics of the Elizabethan Age, so also are anxiety, ambivalence, and conflict. On the one hand, the dual impact of humanism and the Reformation promoted self-consciousness and the emergence of individualism. On the other hand, the comprehensive social structures -family, church, patronage systems and government-constrained men and women to define themselves through and by their several social roles.On the one hand, patriarchal ideology firmly instated gender hierarchy and the subordination of woman to man, defining the female ideal as chaste, silent, and obedient) On the other hand, that ideology has to confront the unsettling spectacle of a woman on top-on the throne-as well as powerful patronesses .Heroines who challenge the patriarchal ideal by their power, wickedness, wit, courage, or independence of spirit but who are often brought to conform to it. On the one hand, Elizabethans exalted order and degree, natural and social hierarchy, and the great chain of being.on the other hand, they confronted radical social tensions brought on by the impoverishment of the aristocracy, the growing power of the city merchants and traders, and the increasingly unruly lower orders and vagabonds.413The Early 17th century (to 1660) 1071 in the religious sphere, the basic issue was, how far should the reformation of the protestant church be carried? and the solution accomplished in 1688 was, as far as each individual self-defined religious group wants. In the sphere of constitutional politics, the basic issue was, how much authority should the monarch have independent of the parliament? and the solution accomplished in 1688 was, almost none Before and after the puritan revoltThe characteristic forms of literature under Elizabeth were courtly, courtly life, whether praised or criticized, was a principal focus of literary attention. E.g. The chivalric allegory (the Faerie Queene) The conventions of genteel courtly behavior.Court society had many characteristic and distinctive values. It implied a belief in hierarchical order within a strict framework of social uniformity, involving obedience to the established church, loyalty to the anointed monarchy, and deference to ones social superiors.Courtiers generally valued the heroic passions-love(but not necessarily marriage),warfare(largely free of a political context), and devotional piety(quite separate from practical morality) The controlling principle behind all these distinctions was an emphasis on honor as the supreme principle of life. Later in (1660, 1688), the pattern of values was quite different. No one universal truth was to be had, whether by sword, prayer, or study. Nor it was really needed. And thus the English community changed from one founded on the concepts of hierarchy , uniformity, and personal loyalty to one founded on the concepts of difference and mutual toleration. The whole character of the society had shifted, from a strict authoritarian regime legitimated by eternal divine constitutions -to a vigorous, materialistic, pragmatic community of competing pressure groups. Literary Crosscurrent Bacon and Hobbes campaigned unrelentingly against the use of insignificant words and merely decorative language. Like the puritans, but from another angle, they insisted on a plain, direct manner of unequivocal prose. A sense of deep disquiet, of traditions under challenge, is felt everywhere in the literary culture of the early 17th century. E.g Donne (metaphysical poet)(try to reinforce the traditional lyric forms of love and devotion by stretching them to comprehend 包含new and extreme intellectual energies) Jonson (Cavalier poet) to compress and limit his poems, to give them high polish and a sense of easy dominance. Milton: wrote works of puritans or puritan sympathizers The revival of drama after 1660, Dryden (heroic couplet) The intellectual tone of the century (shift from lawyers and theologians to scientists and philosophers) Birth and Death of Literary Forms Serious allegory had slid far down the social scale; it was now the natural mode for an inspired primitive like Bunyan Rhymed couplets (not heroic couplet) Formal verse satire Raillery 逗趣，开玩笑 banter (light irony) Burlesque 滑稽戏Prose ( witty eloquence) later, (plain style) (common sense English) Note: (1079)For centuries, the most elementary learning had been grudged to most of them (women); not even fine ladies were always sure of their spelling and punctuation. The humanists who urged most strongly education for women did so only on the score that education would make them more devout and docile Christians. Ladies struggled to find voices of their own. Like all great cultural shifts, this one was too complex to be captured in a single phrase or attributed to a single cause. It had neither a fixed beginning nor a precise end.Modern literature Audiences: responsive to acute arguments or vivid touches of the imagination, is a first premise of modern literature. The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century 1660-1785Great Britain (not just England) Religion and politics Emergence of two clearly defined political parties: Tory (the conservative)Whig (policies of toleration and support of commerce) The Glorious Revolution-a more tolerant era was coming Anne (1702-1714) the last Stuart monarch-the great age of patronage George 1 (1714-1727) & George 2 (1727-1760) they had little interest in the affairs of the country. And Walpole (a prime minister ) was indifferent to literature. Therefore, patronage declined. George 3 (1760-1820) Two dominating concerns: the emergence of Britain as a colonial power & the cry for a new social order based on liberty and radical reform. Torn between two opposing attitudes: loyalty to the old traditions of subordination and local self-sufficiency, and yearning for a new dispensation on principles of liberty, the rule of reason, and human rightsIntellectual Background A conflict of valuesThe most important aspect of the Restoration period (1660-1700) is the increasing challenge of various forms of secular thought to old religious orthodoxies that had been matters of life and death since the ReformationE,g Thomas Hobbes Leviathan 查书（chapter 13)1772 it taught a philosophic materialism and advocate an absolute government as the most efficacious check to human nature, which he described as wholly driven by egoistic and predatory 掠夺passions. Philosophic skepticism The skeptic argued that all our knowledge is derived from our senses, but that our senses did not report the world around us accurately, and that, therefore, reliable knowledge is an impossibility. The safest course is to affirm nothing as absolutely true, to remember that most beliefs are merely opinions.But they are not precluded from religious beliefs, for they could assert that faith alone is necessary for accepting the mysteries of the Christian religion. Deism (natural religion)We must believe in immortality. Meanwhile, here on earth, it is our duty to cooperate with Nature and the Deity, cultivating as best as we can wisdom, virtue, and benevolence. As the 17th century drew to a close, its temper became more secular, tolerant, and moderate. John Lockes Essay Concerning Human Understanding to stop when it is at the utmost extent of its tether(范围）our business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct A recognition of human limitations+ an optimistic view of human nature. Sentimental: Human beings are naturally good and find their highest happiness in the exercise of virtue and benevolence. Such a view of human nature was described as sentimental It found the source of virtue in instinctive and social impulses rather than in a code of conduct sanctioned by divine law. It fostered a benevolence that lead to social reforms It encouraged a ready flow of feeling and tears and a capacity to respond to the joys and sorrows of others.after about 1740 methodism (the great religious revival) Preach to the common people Insistence on faith over works as the way to salvationLiterary theory 1 to the death of Dryden 1700 Neoclassical literature came into being 2 to the death of Pope and Swift 1745 Neoclassical literature came to its culmination 3 to the death of Samuel Johnson New ideas that contained within themselves the origins of the romantic movement of the late 18th century and the early 19th century. In favor of great simplicity, clarity, restraint, regularity and good sense. Accompanied the development of the development of certain rationalistic philosophies and the rise of experimental science, as well as a desire for peace and order after an era of violent extremism Dryden was for easy, natural wit, which aims to surprise rather than to shock. Emphasis on the correct(pure), the appropriate, restraint and discipline, clarity, the fresh and surprising, nature, strength, freedom from pedantry From Dryden to Johnson, English critics value poetry according to its power to affect an audience. Nature: A universal, permanent and representative elements in human experienceExternal nature: a source of aesthetic pleasure; an object of scientific inquiry or religious contemplation. Popes first follow nature-nature is truth in the sense that it includes the enduring, general truth that have been, are and will be true for everyone in all times, everywhere.The idea of nature as order If human nature was held to be uniform, human beings were known to be infinitely varied, and the task of the artist was so to treat the particular as to render it representative. comprehend the vast, and attends to the minute To study nature was also to study the anc